喜樂美語

From the word’s history

From Old English nǣfre, equivalent to ne 'not' + ever.

源自古英文 nǣfre，就是 ne（不）加上 ever。

Wiktionary

You can picture 'never' as the strongest, most total 'no' on the timeline: take the whole stretch of past, present and future, and at no point on it — not even one single moment — does the thing happen. It is 'not' pushed all the way to zero times, forever.

可以把 never 想成時間線上最徹底的「不」：把過去、現在、未來整條時間軸攤開，這件事在上面任何一個點都沒有發生過——連一次都沒有。它就是把「不」一路推到「零次、而且永遠」的盡頭。所有用法，不管是直說還是各種固定說法，骨子裡都是這個「一次也沒有、絕對不」。

意思相近

not evernot onceat no timewho knowsmaybeyou can't be sureanything is possiblekeep an open mindnot evennot even onceI had no ideaI didn't realize+14

原始詞典資料5 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

neveradv/ˈnɛv.ə/

  • 1

    At no time; on no occasion; in no circumstance.

    • I finally finished, and I never do wanna do it again.
    • We were at the same college, but happened never to meet.
  • 2

    Not at any other time; not on any other occasion; not previously.

    • There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewel: I mean your love.
    • "He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!--so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"
  • 3

    Negative particle (used to negate verbs in the simple past tense; also used absolutely).

    • The police say I stole the car, but I never did it.
    • You said you were going to mow the lawn today. – I never!

neververb/ˈnɛv.ə/

  • 1

    Did not; didn't.

    • I told him to go to Woodlands to buy durian for me. He came back and said no durian. But he some more said-ah, he got see people selling durian in Bukit Timah. I ask him-ah. Why you never buy from Bukit Timah.
    • That's what he said. But I never see anything. Maybe it's an invisible dog. Or very good at hiding.

neverintj/ˈnɛv.ə/

  • 1

    A statement of defiance

    • ‘Guess what, I've won the pools!’ ‘Never!’

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。